Prayer is a protected constitutional right

Jesse AlexanderPastor, Geneva Presbyterian Church - Switzerland, FL

Published Sunday, October 07, 2007

I found it ironic to read Sunday's story, "Prayer Under Fire" and Kathleen Parker's opinion piece on free speech. Greg McDowell of American Atheists insists that organizing prayer after a ball game crosses a line presumably a constitutional one. He suggests that those who don't participate could be "easily distinguished and ostracized." Umm, isn't distinguishing oneself and one's own ideas the point of free speech? And is not prayer a form of it? Doesn't our constitution protect that? And for crying out loud, who can pass through high school without feeling ostracized at some point? Can stopping prayer prevent it?

Keeping kids from feeling left out is a nice thought, but it is not the point of the right to free speech nor is it the rationale behind the principle of the separation of church and state. Those and other protections ensure the rights of all of our citizens to freely and peacefully assemble, to speak, to pray, and to worship without the specter of government control or reprisal. The protections are in place for all religious preferences even the religious preferences of atheists. Consequently, interpreting the constitution to prevent students and coaches from freely gathering for prayer turns our nation's foundational document on its head. So please, American Atheists, get out of the legal system and let your ideas compete in the arena of free speech. Organize and call a mid-field, prayer-free assembly after every football game in Florida. Go for it. It's your constitutionally protected privilege. But please stop using the legal system to force the rest of us to fall in line with your beliefs.

One last point: assuming those people praying after the games are Christians, the faith they are practicing encourages them to welcome strangers, to care for the weak and to help the downtrodden. If the American Atheists really want that sort of encouragement taken out of school, perhaps they should consider the folly of their own "religious" zeal.